Saturday night, for example, the scales tilted against Padres on the lone walk issued by Clayton Richard and a pair of throws – one wide, one high . . . neither bad enough to be considered an error.

Bolstered by the fact that they had Mark Buehrle pitching for them, Miami turned these normally insignificant plays into a two-run, eighth-inning rally that carried the Marlins to a 4-1 victory over the Padres before 25,076 at Petco Park.

“These are the games that turn momentum,” said Richard. “We have to find ways to win these kinds of games.”

Instead, the Padres find ways to lose them – as they did in Friday night’s 9-8 defeat in 12 innings, as they did Saturday night.

Thanks to several stellar plays from his defense – outfielders Jesus Guzman and Chris Denorfia each threw out Hanley Ramirez trying to take an extra base -- Richard entered the eighth knotted in a 1-1 duel with former Chicago White Sox teammate Buehrle.

Richard had retired six straight Marlins hitters and nine of the previous 10. The left-hander had allowed eight hits and no walks.

So he opened the eighth by walking Marlins lead-off hitter Jose Reyes on five pitches. “Frustrating,” is the way Richard described the only free pass he would issue.

Richard’s problems would soon grow.

Miami’s No. 2 hitter, the swift Emilio Bonifacio, bunted with the idea of sacrificing Reyes to second. But he placed the ball just inside the first base foul line. Richard, who is not the best fielding pitcher in the game, fielded the ball cleanly but threw the ball wide of first, pulling first baseman Yonder Alonso off the bag.

“It was a really good bunt,” said Richard. “It was tough for me to see.”

“I’m not sure if Clayton had thrown the ball on the bag if he would have gotten Bonifacio,” said Padres manager Bud Black. “It was a really good bunt.”

A good throw would have just beaten Bonifacio.

But with runners on first and second and no one out, the Padres were presented another opportunity to dig themselves out of the inning.

With Dale Thayer replacing Richard, Ramirez hit a ball back through the middle that Padres second baseman Orlando Hudson fielded just behind the bag. He stepped on second to force Bonifacio but threw high to first, Alonso not being able to keep his foot on the bag while stretching for the throw.

Instead of having two out and a runner at third, the Marlins had runners at the corners with one out. Pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs looped a liner over second for a tie-breaking single and Omar Infante – who drove home the Marlins first run Saturday with a third-inning double in almost the same spot as Friday night’s game-winning hit in the 12th – hit a sacrifice fly to center to make it 3-1.

Game.

Buehrle held the Padres to one run on five hits while going the distance, although the Padres did have two golden opportunities against the left-hander before he retired 11 of the last 12 hitters he faced – the final four going down on routine grounders.

Yonder Alonso doubled leading off the fifth and the Padres had runners at first and third with one out when Bartlett attempted a safety squeeze. But Buerhle bolted off the mound, fielded the ball and flipped it with his glove to catcher John Buck, who put the tag on Alonso.

“Bartlett is a very proficient bunter,” said Black. “But he didn’t get it past Buehrle.”

The Padres did tie it in the sixth.

Guzman hit a one-out liner off the glove of a leaping Ramirez at third and reached second with a double thanks to an awkward slide around Infante’s tag. Headley singled Guzman home and reached second on the throw to the plate. But Nick Hundley popped out and Alonso flew out.

The Padres would have only one more runner against Buehrle.

Meantime, the Marlins added an insurance run in the ninth when the very first hitter Miles Mikolas face in his major league debut, Giancarlo Stanton, homered onto the lower balcony of the Western Metal Supply Co. building.